Protesters Demand Freedom And Liberty-- To Sicken And Kill The Rest Of Us

I don't advocate shooting fascists. I stopped that right after Harvey Milk's assassin was... taken care of. Arresting fascists who are a threat to normal people, in the other hand... of that I do approve, even advocate. The armed assholes running around with assault weapons and threatening shopkeepers who are enforcing social distancing rules, should not be killed-- just arrested and dealt with seriously. No one likes being cooped up indoors but they're ruining all the hard work the rest of us have been doing. They shouldn't be allowed to. If they can't understand the relationship between social distancing stopping the pandemic... do they really belong out among normal people?

And yesterday Genesee County, Michigan Prosecutor David Leyton announced that Larry Teague, 44, his wife Sharmel Teague, 45, and her 23 year old son Romonyea Bishop, had been charged with first-degree murder following the Friday fatal shooting of Calvin Munerlyn, a 43 year old security guard at a Family Dollar store in Flint.

Munerlyn had instructed Sharmel Teague's daughter to wear a mask in the store, in accord with the governor's executive order. The daughter refused and was not served in the store. She went home and Sharmel, returned to the store and attacked Munerlyn verbally and then spit at him. Larry and Romonyea returned and shot him the head and killed him. Sharmel is in custody while the her husband and son, are on the run. Bishop was the gunman.

Another nut who needs to be put away is an Ohio state Rep, Nino Vitale (R, obviously) who refuses to wear a mask, claiming that "we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask... We’re created in the image and likeness of God. When we think of image, do we think of a chest or our legs or our arms? We think of their face. I don’t want to cover people’s faces... People were not going to accept the government telling them what to do."

Rev. John Pavlovitz is a man of God and a blogger. At his blog yesterday, he had a different perspective from Vitale: I Think You May Be Wasting Freedom. "Generations of Americans," he wrote, "sacrificed family and future and body and breath, so that you could be pulled from the birth canal nestled in the warm embrace of the easy liberty you’ve come to believe you deserve. Which makes it all the more tragic and shameful how little regard you have for that freedom now, how much you’re squandering it in these eight long weeks you’ve decided are too much for you to bear and constitute an assault on your personal liberty."

You’re complaining because you’re a little late getting your roots dyed and because your lawn is dying.

You’re screaming in the face of police officers because you want to go to Golden Corrall and get your nails done and have a barbecue.

You’re descending on capitol buildings with high-powered weapons, because it’s demanding too much of you to save someone else’s life by just staying home.

You’re threatening grocery store workers because you’re being asked to simply cover your nose and mouth with a tiny piece of cloth while grocery store shopping-- and that feels like oppression to you.

What a stupid, selfish waste of the freedom people paid so dearly for.

What a middle finger to those who gave everything.

What a squandering of the gift that is this nation.

Your courageous, selfless forbears were asked to fight and die on foreign soil in order to save other American lives-- and they did.

They braved bombs and bullets to perpetuate this place where liberty resides and you were generously handed.

In times of war, people here went without for years in cause of the soldiers who were preserving the democracy we were born into.

Activists here gave up security and safety for your right to vote and marry and to live unfettered by tyranny.

Today, you’re being asked to simply stay home to accomplish the same noble task and you can’t manage that. You are interpreting your temporary and fleeting inconvenience as perpetual persecution-- that’s how soft and sad we’ve become, how small our battles now are, what we see as worthy causes.

That’s the way freedom works, though. No one gets to tell you how to wield it or what merits your indignation or what is worth your outrage.

...You’re being asked to stay at home and to wear a mask and to sacrifice normalcy, not just for you, but for other Americans-- so that vulnerable people aren’t exposed to a virus their bodies likely cannot overcome; so that already exhausted healthcare workers will not be overwhelmed by a continual flood of sick people; so that we aren’t hit with a second tidal wave of sickness and death that we will be unable to come back from.

But if you feel like that’s asking too much of you, go ahead and scream and complain and protest and threaten and beat your chest like you are defending liberty: that’s what someone sacrificed so you could do.